


Snape's Snaklet Learns to Fight

by Seasnake



Series: Son of a Snake [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M, Slytherin Harry Potter, Slytherins Being Slytherins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 11:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13006398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasnake/pseuds/Seasnake
Summary: Book 6.





	Snape's Snaklet Learns to Fight

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure how good this one is compared to the others. Hopefully you like it okay.

Severus once reveled in being spy. But now that he was older and wiser with a son to care for, he much preferred being the spy’s confidant.

“I’ll admit the vanishing cabinet is a good idea.” Narcissa had just finished relaying Riddle’s plans. “But how exactly does he expect a teenager to assassinate the most powerful wizard of the last two generations?”

 

“We’re supposed to arm him, he just needs to carry through.”

 

Severus had to scoff at that. “Dumbledore survived the Grindelwald Wars, he escaped far more imaginative assassination attempts than anything you and your husband may be able to conceive.” Narcisa shrugged in agreement.

 

Ironically, it was the very next day that Severus was called into the Headmaster’s office to treat him for getting cursed in a moronic fashion.

 

<0>

            The feral werewolf packs were some of the first to officially join Riddle. Of course, Lupin had nothing to do with them but nobody cared. With Lupin chased off school grounds for being a werewolf, they were again short a defense teacher. This time Severus filled the post and Dumbledore recruited the formally retired Slughorn back to his old job.

 

            Dumbledore used Harry to charm Slughorn back with the prospect of teaching a celebrity. Harry usually didn’t like doing that kind of thing but Slughorn was just kinda…pitiful.

 

Slughorn wasn’t concerning in the slightest but Harry did notice Dumbledore’s hand was black and sickly. He asked Dad about this later.

            “Is he alright?”

 

“No, he’s dying.”

 

“What? How?” That wasn’t the answer Harry expected to hear.

 

“He touched a cursed object he shouldn’t have,” Dad shook his head in disgust.

 

“How long does he have?” Harry tried not to sound as gutted as he felt.

 

“That rests entirely on how hard he pushes himself and if I can create a miracle cure,” Dad grumbled.

 

<0>

            Harry took advanced potions in his sixth year. He didn’t have the same genius for it as his dad but practice and instinct served him well enough. He’d disobey the instructions in the text book if it felt incorrect. Which got him further in the first class of the year than several of his fellow students, including Hermione for once, considering the recipe in the book was terrible. Half-way through Harry could tell his potion was a dud, he also advised Draco and Hermione to give up on their potions. Draco took his advice, Hermione didn’t. Slughorn was a pushover and let Harry start again without making him clean up his glassware and properly dispose of his deadly potion like Dad would have.

 

            To Harry’s and everyone else’s immense surprise, Ron managed to make a good potion. ‘Not perfect but passable’ to quote Slughorn.

 

“You see that?” Hermione and Draco were both fuming that the boy who shouldn’t even be in the class with his marks did so well.

 

“Yeah,” Harry muttered. Ron was shit at potions, couldn’t follow a proper recipe on a good day. How’d he manage with this terrible book? Speaking of which, Something here didn’t belong, Ron had a decrepit textbook he had pulled out of the cabinet at the beginning of class. Again acting on instinct, Harry snatched the book from where Ron was trying to hide it behind his back.

 

“Hey! Give that back.”

 

“Here, I’ll trade you mine. Take it as a present, clearly you’ve been practicing over the summer.” Harry tossed him his newer book.

 

“No, I want that one.” Ron lunged for it, with the practice of a little brother in a house of big brothers. Harry barely managed to duck behind Draco in time. Harry flipped open the book and discovered it was full of handwritten notes. The handwriting was oddly familiar. He turned to the back cover and laughed.

 

“Trust me, Ron, you don’t want this one.”

 

“Give it back, Potter,” Ron snapped.

 

“Do you know whose book this was?” Clearly he didn’t so Harry told him. “Professor Snape’s.”

 

“What?” The Gryffindor turned a bit pale and Draco was suddenly interested. “It says ‘Half Blood Prince’.”

 

“Yeah, he’s a half blood and Prince is his mother’s maiden name,” Harry answered. Probably more than his dad wanted people to know but too bad. Ron considered this for a moment.

 

“I still want it,” he decided.

 

“Tell you what, I’ll keep it and not tell Snape that you used it to cheat Slughorn.” Ron gave in to that.

 

<0>

Dumbledore called Harry to meet him in his office.

“Are you sure you’re alright, Sir?”

 

“Your father told you did he?” Dumbledore gave him a wry smile.

 

“He doesn’t keep secrets from me, not many anyway,” Harry answered with a concerned look at Dumbledore’s hand.

 

“I’ll be fine, for now.” He flexed his black hand then shrugged it off.

 

Dumbledore showed him collected memories of Tom Riddle’s past and explained what he needed from Slughorn.

 

“If it’s that important, can’t you just take it from him?” Harry asked. It would hurt but Slughorn would be fine and lives were at stake.

 

“Even your father would have trouble extracting the untampered memory. No, diplomacy is best.”

 

<0>

 

            Credric approached Harry with a bouquet of flowers, for Harry, and a dead vole, for Melinda. He liked Harry and thought they had a lot in common, would he like to go on a date sometime? He didn’t mention Cho until Harry asked. She thought breaking into the Ministry while the teachers had it covered was stupid and reckless, they’d had a big fight about it and broke up.

 

            Cedric wasn’t at Hogwarts any more so it was a nice, low pressure dating arrangement. They visited on the weekends and Harry didn’t have to worry about seeing him in class, school gossip or his housemates.

 

            Slytherin house grew increasingly tense. Very few people sat in the middle of the common room, groups sat in corners and put up silencing spells even for just doing homework. Nobody dared state their opinions outright but several obvious camps had formed.

 

            Team Pro-Riddle consisted mostly of the children of Death Eaters including Theodore Nott.

 

            Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, and others subtly separated themselves from their Pro-Riddle friends. Draco called this the “New Dark Lord Supporters” and seemed to be their leader. Crab and Goyle were happy with this solution because they’d been raised to worship The Dark Lord but also liked Harry as a friend. While nobody outright flirted (sexually or brownnosing for a job) with Harry they all took to watching him eerily.

 

Blaise Zabini was one of the few to vocalize his opinion; ‘he was already killed once, I’m not impressed.’ He and a bunch of wait-and-see-ers observed the tension and would probably join up with the winning side.

 

Then there was the group Harry identified with and/or led, The Anti-Riddle group who considered blood purity stupid. Astoria Greengrass didn’t agree with Draco trying to sell Harry as the new Dark Lord and took to sitting with Harry, Tracy Davis, or other half-blood students as her new social group. Millicent Bulstrode was a big boned girl who’d always been teased by Pansy and company. She’d been school friends with Draco and Harry for years. With the new tension in the common room she appointed herself Harry’s bodyguard in place of Crab and Goyle.

 

<0>

            Harry never expected to teach a class at 16 but here he was trying to explain Parsletounge to Dad, Draco, and Hermione. Draco needed to understand any secrets Riddle tried to whisper to Nagini and Dad and Hermione were just curious.

 

            Actually, Hermione mostly led the class. She’d looked up books on learning new languages and prompted Harry to repeat phrases.

 

            They could pick out words and phrases when Harry spoke but couldn’t hear Melinda unless she shouted. Dad only understood the basics of what she said and for Hermione and Draco it was unintelligible.

 

            “It must be telepathic. Animagious can’t communicate in full languages with the animals they change into.”

 

“Sirius says dogs mostly communicate through body language rather than words.”

 

“Do I have to mind read snakes?”

 

 

<0>

            Dumbledore opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out a few items. A ring without a stone in its setting, a green locket, and a book that Harry recognized as Tom Riddle’s diary.

“It took some experimentation but I’ve found a two ways to destroy the horcruxes.” Harry was tempted to touch the items but Dad or Melinda would tell him off for it. “Fiendfire or this,” he added a fang to the top of his desk.

 

“That’s part of the baskalisk,” Dad recognized it.

 

“You can guess what Melinda will need.” Dumbledore grinned.

 

“ _Baskalisk venom?_ ” She sounded so excited that Harry had to laugh.

 

“I’ve already immuninized you but you’re going to need further body modification to have the fang implanted,” Dad warned. If she was human she would have been clapping her hands and jumping up and down.

 

“I think she’s okay with that,” Harry answered between chuckles. “And I need to learn how to summon Fiendfire.” He said then changed the topic. “Where’d you get the necklace, Sir?”

 

“I didn’t,” Dumbledore gave a meaningful look to Severus.

 

“Neither did I,” Dad refused the implicit praise. “That was solely the efforts of Regulus Black.”

 

“Sirius’ brother?”

 

“Whatever **Sirius** might say about him, he was a good man.” Dad carried particular venom in his voice. “Regulus didn’t understand the full extent of Riddle’s evil when he joined The Death Eaters. When he discovered what Riddle truly was he plotted to steal his horcruxes. I didn’t learn of his betrayal until too late.” Dad got a far off look of grief. “He’d already stolen the locket and unintentionally alerted Riddle. I only had time to learn what he knew of the horcruxes and where he’d hidden the locket before he was executed.”

 

“Where’d he hide it?” Harry moved the conversation along, knowing that was the best way to support his Dad’s sadness.

 

“He gave it to Kreachure.”

 

“That’s why you were defending him.” Harry had wondered about his Dad’s friendship with the cranky house elf.

 

“He’s loyal. He raised Regulus and blames Sirius for his death.” Dad explained with a tone of voice indicating that he didn’t completely condone the house elf’s actions even though he understood.

 

“Regulus had instructed Kreachure to destroy the locket. When he found no way to do so he entrusted it to your father, who in turn gave it to me,” Dumbledore explained.

 

<0>

 

Severus was grading papers and brewing a standard cure for the hospital wing when his emergency two-way mirror activated. “Severus!” Narcissa sounded as distressed as he’d ever heard. “They want to make Draco take the Dark Mark.”

“That won’t work, Dumbledore regularly searches students for the mark.”

 

Narcissa visibly relaxed. “I’ll let them know.” She left. Severus returned to his brewing and made a mental note to tell Dumbledore to invent a Dark Mark searching spell and set it up around the school.

 

<0>

 

“What I’m about to show you doesn’t leave this room.” Dad swished his cloak menacingly. Harry resisted rolling his eyes at the theatrics. “Dueling is your specialty so you need the greatest variety of spells possible.” Harry nodded along. “The unforgivables are infamous but hardly unique nor particularly powerful. There are far better ways to incapacitate and opponent.”

 

He turned to face the practice target. “For example, Sectrum sempa.” The dummy was instantaneously slashed into three pieces by an invisible blade. Melinda did her version of an impressed whistle from her spot on the floor. Harry was reminded that his dad could be downright cruel when he wanted to be. Fortunately, he was also old enough to appreciate how cool that was. How tough must his mom have been to be married to a guy that created curses and poisons for fun? Harry stepped a bit closer to marvel at the destroyed target.

 

“You invented that when you were sixteen?” He’d never seen that kind of damage before.

 

“How could you know that?” Dad asked.

 

“I was going to give this to you on Christmas as a gag gift,” Harry dug through his bag. “Spent the last twenty years in the back cupboard apparently.” He handed Dad the old book. Severus didn’t recognize it immediately until he leafed through it. “I was startlingly careless in my youth,” he frowned at the page that he had written the curse on.

 

“The instructions are useful though, that book’s recipes are awful,” said Harry.

 

“Been cheating have you?” Dad’s teasing glare was neigh indistinguishable from his serious one but Harry recognized it immediately.

 

“Just using better instructions is all.”

 

            Dad snorted and used his wand to vanish the written sectrum sempa. “Keep it,” he passed it back to Harry now that it was safe.

 

“You sure?”

 

“You need to win over Slughorn, don’t you? Besides, I’ve been teaching you potions your whole life, this isn’t much different.”

 

“Thanks.”

“If anything’s unclear add your own notes as well.” Harry smiled at his dad then changed the topic.

 

            “Did Mom invent any charms?”

 

“Many. For combat, only two.” The dummy had reassembled itself by this point, so Dad attacked it again. “Gravitas maximus.” The dummy’s head bowed as if being pushed down. Dad increased the charm with a twist of his wrist and the dummy snapped at the waist and its head hit the floor with an impact far greater than a piece of wood warranted.

 

“A disarming spell.” Harry brightened at the idea of an alternate to the overused ‘expelliarmus’.

 

“She also made a more precise version.” The dummy repaired itself quickly and Dad waved his wand again. “Reversus gravitas.” The stick representing the opponent’s wand snapped in half as half of it was levitated and the other half made heavy. Harry laughed in surprise.

“That’s brilliant. And so underhanded, Draco would be appalled.”

 

“Another reason narrow minded-thinking can’t win wars. The reverusus charm can be used on person as well.”

 

“Sure, but a clean hit to the wand, a pureblood wizard would have to surrender, they wouldn’t know what to do.” Harry continued to geek out.

 

“Yes, that was Lily’s thinking.”

 

They practiced until Harry could cast both his parent’s spells and an arsenal of other dueling spells wordlessly. Harry was ready to try some wandless magic but Dad had something else in mind.

 

“One more thing,” Dad summoned a black plastic case of muggle design. Harry waited while he opened it then was surprised by what he saw inside.

 

“You have a gun?” Harry watched him remove a firearm.

 

“Of course I have a gun. It’s an effective weapon wizarding opponents never expect.”  Dad passed it to Harry. “It’s unloaded. Familiarize yourself with it so you can transfigure one if necessary. Loaded or not, it’s not a toy don’t point at anything you don’t intend to shoot.”

 

“Magic won’t interfere with it?” Harry asked.

 

“That would require spell designed to stop simple springs, and chemistry. That’s a pistol. Easier to handle for beginners, less recoil, but has more moving parts so it’s harder to transfigure and easier to jam. Keep your finger off the trigger,” he added when Harry held it. “See the sights?”

 

“Yeah,” Harry noticed the notches on the top.

 

“Practice pulling the trigger a few times.” He pulled aside a layer of packing to reveal a second gun in the box. He fussed with the case a bit more while Harry carefully pointed the handgun at the target and tested the resistance the trigger gave him.

 

            “Set that down for a second.” Harry put the pistol back on the table as instructed and accepted the new gun his dad handed him. “This is a revolver. A bit harder to use but extremely easy to transfigure and almost impossible for magic to disrupt.”

 

“It looks like clockwork,” Harry spun the cylinder.

 

“Accurate comparison. If you’re ready to give it a try?” Harry nodded enthusiastically. Dad gave one of his non-smiles at his son’s happiness. “This is the ammunition for the pistol, called a clip.” He showed Harry how the bullets went into the spring loaded case and that slid into the pistol. “Of course you can a cast muffling or silencing spell on the gun itself but for right now I’ll just spell the room and we’ll wear ear protection.” Harry nodded and transfigured himself a pair of earmuffs. A useful spell he had learned from rooming with Gregory, Vincent, and Blaise, who all snored. Dad put on a pair of headphones and took the safety off the pistol. “Stand behind me,” he gave a final warning before firing. It wasn’t any louder than some explosion spells and a lot faster. Dad hit the target a few more times before taking the clip out so Harry could practice loading it.

 

By the end of the afternoon Harry could hit the target most of the time with the pistol, even when Dad changed it to slightly larger ammunition. The revolver really was heavier and even with all his wand practice the trigger tired out his finger. When his aim started to suffer Dad called break.

 

“Can I learn a hunting rifle next?” Harry asked while Dad packed away the firearms and he flexed his tired hands.

 

“That’s not really a dueling weapon.”

 

“No, it’s even better, you could have a lot farther range than spells.” That actually got a small fond head shake from Dad.

 

“You sound like your mother.” And that explained the fondness. “I’ll bring her rifle next time.”

 

“Her rifle?”

 

“She got it a couple months after becoming an auror. Wasn’t considered good wizarding form, but she wouldn’t stand by and do nothing when she knew a muggle invention could save lives.”

“She ever shoot anyone?”

 

“Just once. Shot Maclibur in the leg while other aurors were apparating closer.”

 

“I wish I could have known her.” Harry couldn’t keep the grin off his face, so that’s how tough his mom was.

 

<0>

 

All in all Draco was doing a good job handling the stress of being a double agent in the Death Eaters pretending to be a double agent against Hogwarts. He had to make it look like he was trying to kill Dumbledore without hurting anyone but not fail so badly that his parents will be executed. That plus he juggled three Slytherin social groups. He kept overt face time with the Pro-Riddle Junior-Death Eaters, secretly fanned the flames of the Pro-Harry-Dark-Lord group, and tried to maintain friendships in the Anti-Riddle group. Harry wouldn’t be able to do even half of that.

 

Harry and Hermione did their best to support him. Still, by Christmas Break Draco was the picture of a man burning the candle at both ends. Harry tried to find an extra nice present for him. Hopefully he’d get a bit of time to unwind with his parents without Riddle ruining it.

 

Harry had his own concerns for Winter break. While he was happy to spend Christmas and Boxing day with Dad like always, he wanted to go on a romantic getaway with Cedric before that. However, Dad was being a giant pain about granting him permission. ‘Where are you going? Will you be alone? Where are you sleeping?’

 

Harry became frustrated with the interrogation and snapped out, “you really expect me to believe that you and Mom did nothing except hold hands all through Hogwarts?”

 

“You’ll never know otherwise.”

 

“Ugh.” Harry dropped his head to his arms. “You’re killing me.”

 

After much parental harassment Harry finally received permission to go unsupervised except for Melinda. She only wanted to go in case Harry was attacked and needed her. She liked Cedric and promised not to tattle to Dad. Melinda spent most of the vacation hanging out with Hedwig and Cedric’s owl familiar. This made everyone happy. Because although Cedric liked Melinda it was a little awkward to snog in front of her.

 

Ginny sent Harry a strategy board game “perfect for conniving Slytherins” for Christmas accompanied by a letter that she’d gladly return whatever Harry sent her as a gift if he would please get rid of Ron’s awful girlfriend as her gift instead. The Twins sent fliers and a coupon for their store. After opening these Harry felt better about sending them “Madam Musland’s Essays on Proper Etiquette” and a muggle copy of “The Importance of Being Ernest”.

 

<0>

Draco did not have a restful Christmas. Harry port keyed in with Dad rather than take the train so he missed Draco crying and falling asleep on Hermione’s lap. Despite missing the catalyst, Harry wasn’t surprised they started dating.

 

Hermione was a genius but not particularly adaptable. Draco thought with his heart rather than his head too often but could play poker with the best of them.  They bickered a lot and challenged each other to do better. If Harry hadn’t introduced them they’d probably be mortal enemies.

 

<0>

Harry and friends met up with Cedric in Hogsmeed. Technically it was a double date. “Harry, you’ve been carrying around that book for weeks, you practically sleep with it.” Hermione complained when she noticed he was still carrying it.

 

“What? It belonged to my dad when he was my age. And I don’t sleep with it.”

 

“Should we ask Cedric about that?” Draco smirked at Harry’s boyfriend.

 

“Leave me out of this.”

 

“Dad never talks about what Hogwarts was like. He only talks about Mom on holidays or when he’s had something to drink,” Harry shrugged.

 

The truth was the book also doubled as his notebook. Harry spent more time studying then he ever had before. Not just for tests and the upcoming war, but also to satisfy his competitive nature. He’d always known his father was a genius but owning his book gave new insight. Dad could rewrite a school textbook at 16 and Mom invented a better disarming spell than expelliams, Harry had a lot to live up to. He had parchment for his regular classes but jotted down potion and spell ideas in the back cover of Dad’s old book.

 

“Three Broomsticks?” Cedric suggested.

 

“Not for long, I have errands to run,” Draco said.

 

They bought lunch and talked to interhouse friends for half an hour before Draco excused himself. Ten minutes later he ran back inside, grabbed Hermione and disappeared again. They were dating so Harry didn’t think much of this behavior; at least not until Hermione snuck in the back door. She whispered to Ginny and the two girls left. Harry chose to follow them outside.

 

Draco, Hermione and Ginny hid between two buildings and whispered.

“What are you doing?” Harry made sure nobody was following him then approached.

 

“It would be easier if you didn’t know,” Draco frowned at him. Hermione ignored him and explained.

 

“Draco has a necklace to give to Dumbledore. We’re going to have him “curse” Ginny to deliver it.”

 

“Right, and you just picked me out of spite or something?” Ginny said.

 

“Easy to justify.”

 

“I’ll summon an animal to knock her over,” Hermione continued.

 

“Yes, we have it under control, now get out of here before everyone realizes you’re missing.” Draco shooed Harry away.

 

 

<0>

Harry was reading in bed when the curtains around Draco’s bed opened. Draco looked like a pale and shabby ghost as he stumbled to the bathroom. Harry put his book away and waited for him.

“Why are you up?” Draco eventually came back. He’d freshened himself up a bit but still looked like hell.

 

“Insomniac, remember? You alright?”

 

“No.” Draco snorted in a boorish way his breeding wouldn’t allow during the day time. “He killed people, in our house. So, no, I’m not alright.”

 

 _“Cuddle?”_ Melinda lifted her head from Harry’s blankets.

 

Draco could recognize when she was speaking by now and waited for Harry to translate. ‘cuddle’ had not been covered in their Parselmouth lessons. “She’s offering a cuddle.” Draco pondered this for a second.

 

“Shit, I’m too tired to care.” Harry expected to pass him Melinda so she could sleep in Draco’s bed so he was surprised when Draco just climbed into Harry’s bed. He’d taken his wand to the sinks and used it to magic Harry’s bed wider and summon his pillow. “Tell anyone about this and I’ll kill you.” Draco made himself comfortable

 

Harry considered sleeping somewhere else. _“Oh, don’t be a baby, your friend is hurting.”_ Melinda scolded his hesitation.

 

 _“I know snakes hibernate in knots but adult humans don’t. It’s a little weird.”_ Harry climbed into the opposite side anyway. He recast his wards and protective spells around his bed and heard Draco muttering along.

 

“You know, I have to fake being impressed when Riddle does that,” Draco spoke up after a second of silence. “Get off, that feels weird.” He pushed Melinda with a foot.

 

_“Don’t touch me with your cold feet.”_

 

“Melinda, if you’re going to fight just sleep in your terrarium.” Her habitat was bigger on the inside than the outside to accommodate her size. It was really nice in there but she still chose to sleep with Harry most nights. She gave Harry a look and defiantly spread out between them where it was warmest.

 

            Harry stared at his familiar curtains for a few minutes. “Remember we used to play in the cellar?” Draco spoke up again.

 

“Yeah, we pretended it was a cave expedition. I brought over a muggle torch and your mom hid biscuits for us to find.” Draco made an amused noise at that memory.

 

“It’s a prison now. I used to play Greengits vaults down there and Riddle’s torturing people.”

 

“We’ll stop him.”

 

“Damn right we will, but before or after my parents end up down there?” Draco was rubbing at his eyes as if to dig the thoughts out. “Hell, you and Hermione too. Malfoy heir, courting a mudblood, I’m waiting for Auntie Bellatrix to come back and haunt me.”

 

“Hey.” Harry scooted closer to his friend.

 

“Or my grandfather, or…”

 

“Your family’s doing the right thing, Draco.”

 

“Now. I’m from a long line of murders. It’s like I’m the one with dirty blood.”

 

“Most people probably have a relative they’d rather forget. I know I do.” Tobias Snape was lucky he was in the ground.

 

“Not the same, Harry. I don’t expect you to get it.”

 

“Riddle’s in my head all the time.” That finally got Draco to look at him. “Your house, my head.”

 

“Fair.”

 

_“Shut it and go to sleep.”_

 

“You shut it,” Draco snapped back.

 

They somehow managed a few hours decent sleep. Draco snuck back to his bed before the others woke and Harry magicked his bed back to normal. Draco never spoke of their cuddle night after that. Proving that people did out of character things at 2 am.

 

<0>

            Slughorn turned out to be easy to sweet talk when drunk off Hagrid’s homemade brew.

 

<0>

“Potter, I’ve decided,” Blaise joined Harry in the common room. “The Dark Lord has tried to kill you at least three times and failed consistently. You and your mom have beaten him at least twice, smart money says you’ll win again.”

 

“And the fact that he’s psychotic and kills his own followers?” Harry added sarcastically.

 

“That too.” Blaise opened his book and proceeded to study with Harry’s Anti-Riddle team. While his speech was uninspired, this still counted as a boon for the Anti-Riddle Slytherins. Zabini was one of the leaders of the Undecided Slytherins and the rest would likely follow his example in the next few days.

 

<0>

 

Harry knew the Death Eaters had some plan involving Draco lurking in the Room of Requirement. He didn’t know the details, however, because his acting skills were “rubbish”. His only consolation was that Melinda didn’t know either. Hermione knew as much as Draco did, which was unfair. Not knowing was slowly driving them insane.

 

Harry tried to hold the Draco’s books and homework hostage until Draco gave him a hint towards the plans but Draco, in true spoiled brat fashion, complained to Dad who put a stop to that.

 

Harry countered his boredom by inventing a translation potion that could be turned on and off via charm (making it undetectable) for anyone to understand Parseltounge. He couldn’t figure out how to let other people speak it though. On the plus side his classes were going well and he could side apparate without splinching his passenger.

 

<0>

 

Draco was officially the worst friend in the history of friendship. He slipped Harry and Melinda a sleeping draught that kept them unconscious through the whole fight. He finally woke to Zabini casting stinging hexes on him Millicant shaking him to death. By the time he stumbled out of the dungeons the Death Eaters were long gone and Dumbledore was dead.

 

In fairness he probably couldn’t have faked his shocked grief and shouting match with Draco, but that didn’t justify drugging him. The Death Eater’s he let in didn’t just assassinate Dumbledore they attacked and injured several students who tried to fight them. They were lucky nobody else died.

**Author's Note:**

> I was stuck trying to write Dumbledore's death but then it occurred to me that Riddle would probably tell Draco to keep Harry and Snape out of the way during the attack.


End file.
